News Archive - 2016

International collaboration finds associations with four regions of the genome in PSC patients

Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) is a rare disease of the liver with no effective treatment. Researchers identify four regions of the genome associated with the disease, one of which is a potential drug target.

Based on ground-breaking research at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute into the role of the human microbiome in disease. Goal is to create the world’s leading company focused on microbiome biology and its use in medicine. Cambridge Innovation Capital and IP Group co-lead £8m funding round.

Microbiotica has been established to commercialise ground-breaking research, conducted in the Host-Microbiotica Interactions Laboratory (“HMIL”) at the Sanger Institute, into the role of the human microbiome in health and disease and its application to medicine. The HMIL is led by Dr Trevor Lawley and collaborates with the Professor Gordon Dougan research group.

Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Imperial College London have developed Microreact, a free, real-time epidemic visualisation and tracking platform that has been used to monitor outbreaks of Ebola, Zika and antibiotic-resistant microbes

Microreact.org is a cloud-based system that combines the power of open data and the web, to provide real-time global data sharing and visualisation, allowing anyone to explore and examine outbreak information with unprecedented speed and detail. In collaboration with the Microbiology Society, any researcher around the world will be able to share their latest information about disease outbreaks.

Enhanced CRISPR lets scientists explore all steps of health and disease in every cell type

Two new methods will allow researchers world-wide to rapidly and accurately explore the changing role of genes as the cells develop into tissues such as liver, skin or heart, and discover how this contributes to health and disease.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge researchers have created sOPTiKO, a more efficient and controllable CRISPR genome editing platform. Today (29 November), in the journal Development, they describe how the freely available single-step system works in every cell in the body and at every stage of development. This new approach will aid researchers in developmental biology, tissue regeneration and cancer.

Sanger spin-out secures $100 million

Company founded on Institute technology goes from strength to strength.

Kymab is a company founded on genetic technologies developed at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute by Professor Allan Bradley. Its focus is discovering, developing and delivering new monoclonal antibody medicines to treat a variety of diseases.

River blindness worm’s genome reveals unique fatal flaws

In Nature Microbiology, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute researchers revealed the whole genome of Onchocerca volvulus, and within it key differences to its evolutionary partner in crime

River blindness is a common chronic infectious neglected disease that blights many communities near water in remote areas of the Amazon basin in South America and in Africa. It is caused by the worm Onchocerca volvulus, whose larvae migrate through the body, including into the eyes of infected people, making them blind. The parasite is a major socioeconomic issue in the villages and families it affects because sufferers are no longer able to work. In addition other family members, often children, have to give up their studies or work to care for them, further depriving the family of income or future development.

The UK Prime Minister Rt Hon Theresa May today (21 November) joined key stakeholders from across the life sciences sector to open the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s new Bridget Ogilvie Building and the Biodata Innovation Centre at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridge.

Together these new buildings will house one of the world’s most advanced gene sequencing facilities and a unique innovation space for global genomics and biodata businesses. These buildings will be home to a powerful collaboration between academia, businesses large and small, charities and Government.

As part of BLUEPRINT, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute led two of the six papers published in the journal Cell

The papers reveal how variation in blood cells’ characteristics and numbers can affect a person’s risk of developing complex diseases such as heart disease, and autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, coeliac disease and type 1 diabetes.

A multi-drug resistant infection that can cause life-threatening illness in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) and can spread from patient to patient has spread globally and is becoming increasingly virulent, according to new research published today in the journal Science.

Newton's apple seeds to grow on Wellcome Genome Campus

Wellcome Genome Campus Connecting Science applied for the seeds so that they can grow their own Newton's Apple Tree under which they can share the Campus' science and stories with school children and the public.